Black Reaper
by Angeldoctor
Summary: In one world as the old wizard known as Harry Potter died of old age, in another world torn by war Haru Uzumaki was born. Now in a new world and denied his rightful rest, Haru must choose what to do with his second chance and whether he even wants it. Born in Kiri during the Second Shinobi War, Haru will carve his name in history as a man that stands among the legends.
1. Rebirth

**Chapter 1**

**Disclaimer:**** All publicly recognizable characters, setting, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. All other concepts and ideas from other books or stories belong to their respective authors. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

In a plane that existed above all of Creation, Death watched as the man known as Harry Potter slowly died of old age. Potter had lived a good and happy life full of wife and children but also responsibility and heartache. He had had to make many hard decisions that at times ended in the deaths of loved ones. Yet he had survived and thrived even, making sure that what he suffered in his childhood would never happen to another and that another Voldemort would never rise. Now he was dying at the rip old age of 147, surrounded by his family and friends. By all accounts, he was going to a well deserved rest.

Yet, there was a problem with that. The title of 'Master of Death' may not come with fancy abilities or skills but it _did_ come with protection from Death himself. Unless Potter was defeated and therefore, the Elder Wand changed allegiances which would break the Trinity of the Hallows that gave him his position, Harry Potter could not die.

So this left Death in a bit of a conundrum. He could not take Potter's soul but his body clearly could no longer contain him. By all accounts this would turn him into a sort of ghost and Death could not allow that. Most ghosts stayed behind out of fear and even then they were just a fragment of the original soul. The idea of a whole, complete soul staying behind on Earth unable to move on was... troubling to say the least.

Suddenly, Death had an idea. While he could not take Potter's soul, he _could_ transfer it elsewhere to be reborn. By being reborn he would no longer be Master of Death and could die like any other person. Furthermore he would have still died a 'natural' death in his own world, breaking the power of the Elder Wand forever and stopping any other from becoming Master of Death.

True, Death could not control or even know what world Potter would land in but hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad a place. And if he was, by coincidence, summoned on that world in his lifetime he could reach out to Potter and explain what happened.

Death nodded to himself. Yes, that would be the best solution. So with a pinch of his fingers, Death grabbed Potter's soul and threw it to another world where it would be reborn.

* * *

The boy known as Haru was conceived just as in another world, the old man known as Harry Potter died. The death of the much loved Man-Who-Conquered caused widespread grief and mourning across Britain for the death of such a loved figure. The former's birth, however, was known only to the midwife that attended to his birth since his mother died at childbirth, only living long enough to name him. His father was unknown, probably a Kiri nin who's loins had burned when he saw his Uzumaki mother's form.

Haru originally went to one of the many orphanages that littered the Land of Water where he was born. Orphanages that were older than the shinobi villages themselves and should have been torn down decades ago. Unlike his first life, here Haru was no one special. Just one more orphan in a world littered with them due to the constant skirmishes and wars between shinobi villages. The only thing of note was that the caretakers at the orphanage noted how unusually bright he was, being capable of complex speech at the tender of three and understanding grown-up concepts easily. They also noted how chilling his emerald eyes were. As if they had lived much longer than his three years said.

As for Haru, when he thought of the phrase 'the next great adventure', he'd hardly thought it as literal. He'd thought the next great adventure would be a place of peace and contentment where all the worries of his life faded away. For a moment, it had. For a moment that lasted an eternity he had felt the little aches and pains he'd accumulated over his life fade away.

He'd gone to sleep content and at peace. In contrast, his awakening had been rough and chaotic. He felt much weaker than before and everything was blurry and strange. It was like he'd left a pure world of peace only to be thrust into this impure world that smelled of blood and sweat. His last (or first depending how you looked at it) was of a tired, scratchy voice saying...

"Haru... your name is now Uzumaki Haru."

* * *

Haru woke up with a sigh. He woke up long before the sun rose up with had been his habit in another life as well. Today the six year old Haru would be attending Kiri Shinobi Academy, something he still had mixed feelings about. While he wasn't Dumbledore and believed in giving people more chances than they had hair and had killed before, he didn't like the idea of child soldiers. He himself had been a child soldier in a way after all but even he hadn't started till he was eleven.

Still, it was the only route open to him for a profession in the future. He couldn't learn a trade unless taken as an apprentice and they wouldn't take a child that didn't even have basic education as an apprentice. In his past life he'd been an Auror but that at best translated to being a shinobi or samurai in this world and samurai are notoriously picky about taking people as students so he was stuck as a shinobi.

Plus, they were currently at war. The Second Shinobi War, they called it. The last one had been over 20 years ago which made Harry feel slightly better about the fact that wars didn't start as often as they did in the muggle world back home. They were currently in the third year of the war and unless something changed, it didn't look to be close to ending. For this reason, orphans were regularly being visited by shinobi who spent the day with them. It was a form of manipulation to get the orphan kids to associate happiness with shinobi, making it that much more probable they'd become shinobi. It was cruel and manipulative and just what the cynical Haru expected.

Still, from what Haru had heard, the war was brutal. He'd regularly hear of some wife or child who'd become widows or orphans because their fathers, mothers or husband and wives died. Haru heard whispers of the "Sannin" and "Konoha's White Fang" along with someone named Hanzo. Whoever they were, they were whispered about in the same tone of fear as enemy Kages so that said much about their skill and power.

The war had originally started when the joint army of Kiri, Kumo and Iwa came together and destroyed Uzushiogakure, home of the Uzumaki clan, his family clan. This was actually the reason he was now known simply as Haru nowadays. He realized that if he continued to call himself Haru _Uzumaki_, he might someday go to sleep and be killed by a Kiri-nin simply for being an Uzumaki. He might be apathetic to his current life but he didn't want to die. So he'd stopped calling himself Haru Uzumaki and changed the orphanage records so they stated he had no last name. Luckily, he didn't have the Uzumaki red hair so without the surname, no one would suspect a thing.

When he'd first heard his relatives had been killed, Harry had found it a bitter irony. The fact he lived in the country that helped destroy them almost made him swear it was deja vu. While the Dursleys never killed his parents directly, they certainly made it known they wouldn't have saved them. Not even Petunia would have done much to save her own sister thanks to the divide between them.

Thankfully, over a hundred years of Harry Potter's memories had made him mostly apathetic to it. He'd long gotten used to losing loved ones and the unfairness of life. To be truthful while he mourned their loss on some level, he knew he didn't on a personal level. To be blunt, he was only two when they died and he never knew any Uzumaki relatives so it was hard to feel bad for them beyond if they were strangers. Still, he thought it was a bitter cruelty that he was once again an orphan in his second life much like his first. The only upside was that at least there wasn't a prophecy hanging over his head.

Plus, he heard there were survivors that scattered across the Elemental Nations. Maybe someday he'd meet one and know a member of his family in this world.

As for Harry becoming a Kiri-nin, he had little choice in the matter. Sure, it wasn't forced, _per se_, but it was heavily encouraged in order to fill the ranks for this pointless war. Harry joined because it was something to do and truly he was apathetic to this entire experience. He'd died thinking he would be free of the constant torment of having to make hard choices that ended badly for him either way and yet here he was.

So for once in his existence, he chose what was easy over what was right. He chose to be a ninja even if it meant working for those that killed his family.

* * *

Genin Exams...

Seven year old Haru stood in line at the target range to take his early graduation exam along with those much older than him.

Despite the fact that the war had officially ended a few months ago, the war-time advanced academy curriculum was still in place. The curriculum allowed a normal six year long curriculum to be compressed into three and also allowed one to graduate early if one showed the skills to.

Haru was one such person, having been labeled a 'genius' quickly after mastering the the three basic Academy ninjutsu within a month. The fact he went even further till he could do it without handsigns or words only enforced the image. So now, Haru was graduating within a year of entering with students years older than him.

The Kiri graduation exam was divided into three parts: basic ninja knowledge in the form of a written test, a review of non-ninjutsu ninja skills such as shuriken and kunai usage and handling, and the taijutsu/ninjutsu portion. Of the three parts the ninja skills and taijutsu/ninjutsu portions were the most important. You could be dumb as a rock as long as you had the skills to make up for it.

Haru had already passed the written portion and now it was time for the ninja skills portion.

"Next! Haru!"

Haru stepped forward and eyed the line of moving targets arrayed before him. Unlike other Academies, the Kiri one tested quality over quantity and so their exams were that much harder. The targets were not only moving but anything less than a 80% total score in this section was a failure and he'd have to try again next year. He really didn't want to do that since the only thing he hadn't mastered was the history, something he really didn't care much about past the founding of the Shinobi villages. He would rather spend his free time in his research about the differences and similarities between chakra and magic.

Haru eyed the targets with the perfect eyesight this body afforded. His hand-eye coordination had already been high thanks to wielding a thin stick of wood for most of his past life and even then he'd been a deadshot for anything less than a mile. Now, with perfect vision and a younger body, this had only increased with practice.

Pulling his arm back, Haru let fly his ten kunai (real ones since the Academy didn't believe in coddling their students) and watched as they sank into the ten targets with perfect bullseyes. Haru then picked up the ten shuriken and did the same, getting a perfect score. The older students arrayed around him muttered about him being a genius enviously and jealously. Haru used Occlumency to ignore the irritation he felt at their words. He'd worked hard for his skills, despite the unfair advantage his memories gave him, and they acted as if he was born with it.

Haru closed his eyes as he waited for the other students to try their hand. He distantly heard groans of failure and cheers of success and absently wondered how many would die within their first year. While much harsher than what he heard other academies were, the Kiri Academy still made the shinobi lifestyle seem like a great one. They made it seem as if the students would go out and defeat all of Kiri's enemies without a scratch.

They didn't tell them about the island graveyard dedicated solely to the hundreds if not thousands of dead shinobi in the last war alone. They didn't tell them about the backdoor deals and outright twisted missions they'd take such as razing a village, kidnapping a child due to their kekkei genkai and sometimes even torture. All this they kept to themselves but Haru was smart enough to realize it would happen. His past life experiences helped him come to terms with the fact.

He'd done worse before.

Haru was brought out of his thoughts when his name was called again for the taijutsu portion. His opponent was a Chunin if his flak jacket said anything and it was obvious he wasn't going to hold back. It was just another thing that separated the Kiri Academy from others. If a fresh genin could hold his own for 5 minutes against a seasoned Chunin who wasn't holding back then he could survive on the field long enough for back-up to arrive.

Haru got into his modified Academy stance and waited for his opponent to make the first move. In order to keep up with other older students, Haru had modified the usual Academy taijutsu style to be based on speed and precision more than strength. Despite his "genius", he was still only seven years old and even with chakra enhancing his body he couldn't match the strength of the older students.

So instead, he created a modified taijutsu style loosely based on the Academy one that revolved around dodging or avoiding the opponent's strikes with speed and striking back at lethal or crippling places in the enemy's body before they could react. The weakness was that if he fought someone significantly stronger than him and they landed a hit then he wouldn't have trained his body to take the hit like someone with a power style fighting style would. That and it needed Haru to be faster than the opponent or else it was just a stopgap style.

Haru doubted he would be faster than his current opponent, even with channeling chakra through his body which was a Chunnin level technique as far as he knew. However, the point wasn't to win but to land a blow or last five minutes at least. Either of those would guarantee a pass though only the former would give him a perfect score.

Haru was aiming for the former.

The two were still for a moment before exploding into action. Haru dodged a high kick and tried to trip the chunin up with a low kick to his other leg only for him to kick off and avoid it. Haru quickly rolled to the side to avoid a smashing kick from above and leaped up to punch him only for the man to grab his punch and throw one of his own.

Haru barely managed to twist to the side to avoid and launched a kick that forced the proctor to jump back to avoid it. The two combatants were across from each other once more before leaping into action again.

This time Haru sent the first punch and the proctor surprised him by leaping slightly and blocking his punch with a kick, getting a grunt of pain from Haru. Haru's eyes widened when he saw the proctor's other leg com from above and he twisted himself to stop the proctor's leg with both of his own.

The proctor's eyes widened at the seemingly advanced taijutsu maneuver that freed Haru stab at the proctor with his free hand which held a kunai. Another loophole in the Academy was that weapons were not excluded from use in the taijutsu exam, since as being shinobi any advantage no matter how low should be and was expected to be used.

Being incapable of dodging with both legs occupied, the proctor blocked it with his arms crossed across his chest and grunted when the kunai dug deep into his left arm. Haru's eyes flashed and he pushed off the proctor to get some distance, leaving the kunai embedded in the proctor's arm.

The entire exchange had only taken three seconds maximum due to the speed both were moving at before they were once again standing across from each other.

The proctor took out the kunai with a grunt and turned to the proctor judging the match with a curious look. The other proctor seemed to consider it ebfore nodding. The proctor that had been fighting with Haru turned back to him with a nod.

"You pass. Nice usage of an opening to land a match-turning blow. In a real fight and with more strength you would have taken my left arm out of commission. But I suggest working a little on your body strength so that you don't have to sue both legs to block a single kick next time."

Haru nodded, accepting the praise and advice, knowing it was genuine. The one thing he liked about the Academy here was that there was no favoritism or discrimination due to clan or social status. If you couldn't hack it then it didn't matter if your father was the Mizukage or the Daimyo, you weren't becoming a shinobi. On the other hand, if your were genuinely good then they would praise you while giving good advice to cover your weaknesses.

Haru went back to the line, ignoring the stares and whispers of his fellow graduates with Occlumency-enforced calm and waited for the next exam.

* * *

Haru walked out of the Academy with the Kiri headband on his head and a thoughtful look on his face.

While Haru had entered the Academy to get a basic education and because he had no other plan for his future, he never thought what to do once he actually became a ninja. A part of him was amused that he was now officially what was considered a myth in his old world even by wizards much like wizards were considered myths by muggles. It seemed like no matter what life he lived he would never be normal.

Another part of him wondered whether he had a death wish. He had to admit that there were times that he wanted to kill himself in hopes he'd be reunited with his loved one this time and not be reincarnated. However, he couldn't go through with it. It was a coward's way out and no matter what form or name he was called, he was no coward.

So was becoming a ninja another way to commit suicide without having to do it himself? If he had truly wanted just the basic education he could have acted like an average person and taken the entire six year long curriculum before purposefully dropping out. He would have still gotten his diploma for basic education which would have allowed him to apprentice under someone. Sure it may seem simple compared to being a shinobi but wasn't simple what he always wanted?

Yet he hadn't gone that course. He had instead blazed through the Academy curriculum within a year, being labeled a genius which attracted attention to him and became a shinobi.

Did this mean that he subconsciously chose the career with the highest mortality rate because he wanted someone else to kill him?

Haru bit his lip and shook his head. It didn't matter. He would simply go forward as is. Go through the motions and hopefully find some happiness in this life. Plus, being a shinobi gave him permission to enter the Ninjutsu section of the library which would help him in his research.

He had been told he wouldn't be given a team this time around due to there not being a team with an open spot for him. He would have to wait till next year to be given a sensei and until then he could take minor D-ranks for cash and train on his own. It was better this way anyway since it allowed him to research in secret without having someone hovering over him like if he had a sensei. Maybe he'd even be able to recreate some spells into jutsu by the time he got a team?

With that thought in mind, Haru made his way back to the orphanage. He couldn't stay there any longer since he was a genin now but no doubt the caretakers would give him time to find an apartment first.

As he walked down the street, Haru missed an auburn haired girl with green eyes around his age staring after his retreating back in curiosity.

* * *

**AN: And there's chapter 1!**

**As you can see Harry has been reborn as Haru Uzumaki in the Naruto world. He's related to Naruto and Kushina of course but only distantly and his father was a random Kiri-nin so he won't find any family on that side. Right now, Harry is apathetic to everything around him due to his secret desire to die and be reunited with his family but that will change as time passes.**

**As for Haru's skills, he's naturally above-average but what gives him his edge is his past life's memories which allow him to think like an adult and make connections others would miss. The fact that magic and chakra are similar enough for him to make parallels also works in his favor though they aren't exactly the same and have differences.**

**Next chapter is a year later when he gets his team and to show his progress in his skills so far.**

**As always, Read and Review!**


	2. Loneliness Has No Age

**Chapter 2 – Loneliness Has No Age**

**Disclaimer:**** All publicly recognizable characters, setting, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. All other concepts and ideas from other books or stories belong to their respective authors. No copyright infringement is intended.**

**AN: It should be noted that there shall be several Bleach characters in this story. This is due to a SEVERE lack of Kiri-nin mentioned in the manga or anime. Therefore, I had to either create OCs (which would either be severely underdeveloped due to lack of importance or simply annoying to create) or pick characters from an anime I knew well and that fit easily into the Naruto world. Obviously, I picked Bleach but I just want to make it clear that the only Bleach elements will be the characters. All their abilities/skills are changed into the Naruto-verse equivalent and be well explained to fit. There shall be NO zanpakuto. Although some will use swords, the swords will be just that. Swords. Their zanpakuto's abilities will either not exist or be changed into something in the Naruto world that's similar enough to pass. That is all.**

* * *

"_There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares."_

- Jim Butcher

* * *

**Haru's apartment, Kirigakure, 38 AK (38 years after Konoha's founding)**

Eight year old Haru Uzumaki looked over his latest findings with a calculative eye.

It had been almost a year since Haru graduated from the Academy and much like they told him he was still team-less. However, he hadn't wasted his time and had spent it researching the parallels between magic and chakra. Part of that was trying to create jutsu equivalents of some magical spells.

So far, it was a bust. The problem was that chakra just wasn't the same as magic. As far as Harry could guess, magic was a form of Yin Release that relied on an internal power to use it. The problem was that not only were purely Yin Release jutsu either fantastically rare or too powerful to use but required beyond precise chakra control to be able to separate one's Yang chakra from one's Yin. It was _possible_ but until he had the chakra control necessary he couldn't even begin to experiment.

To explain, chakra was separated into Yin chakra and Yang chakra, or as most called it the mental and physical energies. Combining it together was how on got the chakra everyone used in this world. Chakra was in every leaf, every rock, every aspect of this world. It was this that made Haru think that chakra was analogous to magic the first time he'd heard it.

Now, Yin chakra was what gave form to the imagination from nothingness while Yang chakra was what gave it life. There were legends saying that the Sage of Six Paths (who was the sort of Jesus Christ of this world) could create life from nothing due to his mastery of Yin-Yang release. If true, it was little wonder the Rikoudo Sennin was considered a god by those who believed in him.

Wizards, while they could turn one thing into another and even into a living thing, couldn't create true life. Even living transfigurations were just automatons who acted how the caster thought the animal should act but had no true life or soul. This was what made Harry think magic was a form of Yin release. Wizards could give their imagination form through wand movements (which were akin to hand signs) and words much like Yin release but lacked the ability to use Yang release to give it true life.

Magical fire would burn only as long as there was magic, either by the caster or another source, to feed it and would quickly disappear once magic stopped feeding it. On the other hand, fire release conjured real fire that would burn until it was put out through the usual means. That was the difference adding Yang release to something did and was why chakra users were so much more powerful than wizards in some respects.

The downside was that if one ran out of chakra then they could die or lose years of their life. Wizards never suffered from that and the worst magical exhaustion could do as leave one bedridden for a week before they were back on their feet.

That was why Yin and Yang Release jutsu were so rare. One mixed Yin and Yang in order to stabilize the end result. Adding too much of one or the other changed the end result and using one alone drastically changed the result. After all, the manipulation of Yin and Yang was the source of non-elemental techniques such as the Shadow Imitation Technique, Multi-Size Technique, medical ninjutsu, genjutsu, etc. The Second Mizukage's infamous Mirage Genjutsu was also a form of Yin Release. Of all the genjutsu he'd heard about, that one interested him the most due to the fact that it couldn't be dispersed using the usual methods.

This was because the genjutsu didn't put chakra directly into the target(s) body but rather channeled chakra through a different means. For the Mirage Genjutsu, he channeled it through his clam's mist. Combined with the clam's automatic camouflage, it was an almost impossible to stop tactic and while you're distracted by the genjutsu's mirages, he can attack you from another direction at will.

The fact that it was impossible to undo without first taking out the source of the genjutsu, in that case the clam, separated it from normal genjutsu. Haru had heard of another genjutsu of the Uchiha clan that was also impossible to undo but had found no references to it beyond rumor and hearsay.

If a genjutsu could become so powerful simply by using only Yin chakra, just what would happen if he tried to use a spell turned jutsu using only Yin chakra?

The consequences were too dangerous, especially if it fell into the wrong hands so he'd abandoned that trail of thought until he found a safe way to both practice it and hide the secrets from anyone who wished to use them. He doubted it would ever exist. With things like the Sharingan that could copy jutsu and the Byakugan that could see chakra flow then he doubted they couldn't find a way to replicate it if they wanted. Better if he never researched that idea ever.

Instead, he'd turned down a different trail of research which was turning wards into fuinjutsu arrays. Much like the runes of his old world, one could literally do anything if they understood how to. In that way, Haru was studying fuinjutsu to recreate the various wards he knew from his old world. Of course, it wouldn't be purely fuinjutsu. Every ward in his old world had to be created both runes and wand motions to activate them. Harry would turn the runes into fuinjutsu arrays and the wand motions into hand signs.

For this reason, he'd spent most of the past year studying the theory behind fuinjutsu and hand signs to be able to find their analog in runes and wand motions. Luckily, he'd spent much of his twilight years as Harry Potter studying the inner mysteries of magic and the relation between certain wand motions and the effect. It wasn't exactly the same but he was making progress nonetheless.

Haru sighed as he put aside his notes on hand sign/wand motion analogs and looked up with bleary eyes to see the sun rising. He'd pulled an all-nighter again and while Occlumency helped reduce the amount of sleep he needed, he'd gone three days without sleep as is so he should probably sleep in tonight. Especially since he'd be meeting his team in a week. He should spend this week practicing his more ninja related skills instead of his pet projects.

Haru got up with a groan and stretched to get the kinks out of him. It was funny that he was only eight years old yet he was acting like an old man spending more time on research than playing outside. But then again, he wasn't normal. Most kids his age couldn't see the myriad little signs pointing to serious changes in Kiri's infrastructure but he could. Most would be worried but Haru was mostly apathetic to it all.

Haru looked around his new apartment with a critical eye.

To be blunt, the place looked like a madhouse. There were dozens of papers thrown on top of the dining room table (which he usually used for writing down his research since he ate on the couch funnily enough) with many half-finished jutsu ideas and chakra theories on top. Along one wall was the sink and fridge with dirty dishes piling on top. On the wall on the opposite side of the sink was the small hall that led to the bathroom and closet. Behind him was the door out of the apartment which had various security seals on it to prevent intruders from entering much like the windows. Across from him was the door to the bedroom which was open showing a bed that hadn't been slept in a while but was still messy from the last time he did and simply never picked it up.

To be truthful, it looked like what an apartment of a eight year old boy should look like. The only difference was that instead of games or toys, there were scrolls on complicated chakra theories open across the table and books on advanced subjects on the floor.

There were also two bookcases on the wall next to the hall to the bathroom. They were Haru's copies of the chakra theories Haru thought were either most probable or most pertinent to his research. Both bookcases had blood seals on them so only someone related to him by blood could remove them. His personal notes was also written in French so that if they managed to crack it, they still wouldn't be able to understand them. There was no other language but Japanese in the Elemental Nations and since French was derived from Latin, a language that never affected Japanese in any way, there was no way to decode the language.

Haru sighed as he slowly began to pick up and organize everything into separate piles depending on subject they were related to. After he was done picking up the living room/dining room, he went to the small sink and washed the dishes, inwardly missing the days when he could just wave his wand and they'd clean themselves. Once done with that, he went to his bedroom and picked it up as well, throwing all the dirty clothes in the hamper, which he inwardly reminded himself to take to the wash later, and airing out the room.

Once he was done cleaning the house (luckily the bathroom wasn't that dirty though he'd probably clean it tomorrow anyway to make sure), Haru walked to the dining room table where a list was awaiting him.

The list had Haru's nature affinities which he'd discovered earlier that year during one of his research-free moments. It turns out he had a strong water affinity and an about average lightning and wind affinity. The wind and lightning affinities were probably due to his body kekkei genkai, which he'd discovered by surprise while practicing his taijutsu. His water affinity was probably from one of his parents, most likely his mother since Uzumaki were known for having strong water affinities. While he'd found it interesting at the time, he'd put it aside in favor of his research.

Now, however, he had decided to work on his ninja skills more and so had made a list on the branches of jutsu he wanted to specialize in. Despite his years of experience as Harry Potter, it had been very difficult to not just specialize in ninjutsu and spam battlefield-changing jutsu to beat his enemies. It would call to his inner child and help him in his research as well.

However, he remembered his late wife's words that sometimes it was better to kill with a dagger from behind than a sword from the front since both got the same result and a dagger was easier to conceal. In other words, sometimes being subtle was better than attracting attention to yourself or pushing your name around to get something done.

Bowing to his wife's wisdom as he had done many times in his past life, Harry decided on a path fitted for stealth and infiltration than outright confrontation. Though he would still learn (or create) a few powerful jutsu in case confrontation was unavoidable.

He chose jutsu branches that complemented his planned fighting style such as genjutsu (which had a giant star next to it to symbolize its importance), general skills that others looked down on, fuinjutsu and a small note saying that he'd add a few of his own jutsu creations as well.

Of course, he'd still practice his affinities but for now, he would focus more on the other jutsu branches. No doubt whatever sensei he got would help him in ninjutsu no matter who they were. On the other hand, the other branches were rarely studied until one was Chunin or Jounin so doing it now would give him a head start.

With his path decided, Haru got dressed and went toward the Kiri Library.

* * *

**Kirigakure main street, in front of Kirigakure Main Library**

Haru slowly approached the library with a curious look in his eyes. Despite having been a Genin for almost a year now, Haru had never actually been to the Kirigakure Main Library.

This was because he usually went to the library at the Academy when he needed information. The library at the Academy differed from the Kiri Main Library in that it held not only scrolls on basic chakra theories and usage but also unsubstantiated theories on various subjects. In other words, while the Kiri Main Library held proven theories on everything imaginable relating to the shinobi lifestyle, the Academy one held theories that had yet to be proven such as theories on Yin and Yang release. Those theories would never enter the Kiri library until they were proven first.

Of course, both libraries only held copies of the scrolls and theories. The originals of both libraries were held in a secret vault that only the Kage and his advisers knew the location of. While both the Academy and the Kiri Library were well-defended in case of attack, there were several extra security measures to prevent theft such as a dead-man's switch/seal on all the scrolls that could be activated remotely in case they're stolen. The scroll would be destroyed and since it was only a copy, another could be made to replace it.

Haru approached the Library with his headband on full display on his forehead even as he felt the eyes of the hidden ANBU watching him from the shadows. Haru approached the library guard and gave his identification number to prove his identity. Unlike the other nations, Kiri didn't have something as stupid as ninja licenses that could be easily stolen. Each Kiri-nin was expected to memorize their shinobi number in case of needing it to be confirmed because if they forgot the only way to get a new one was after a long and arduous session with T&I. Something even Haru would like to avoid.

The guard at the door pressed his radio to relay Haru's identification number to base where it would be verified. Haru waited patiently as it was confirmed and he was let through as the guards around the Library relaxed. If Haru's identification number hadn't been verified as correct or if he'd tried to mold chakra they would have subdued him faster than he could blink before bringing him to T&I for interrogation.

Haru entered the Library and looked down at his list. While he wanted at least two D-rank techniques of each of his elemental affinities, he also wanted a few other ones he'd heard about such as the Body Flicker Technique and at least two genjutsu. The latter was because he wanted to learn a genjutsu to later perhaps modify it. Genjutsus were one of the best examples of jutsus that depended on Yin chakra in this world. Therefore, it made them a basic form of Yin release and maybe if he mastered a few he would get a better handle for later research.

Haru hummed to himself as he searched through the ninjutsu section first for elemental jutsus. He looked over the scrolls in the Water release section which had been color-coded by their rank of difficulty and kept an eye out for E-rank and D-rank. He would be smart and start from the bottom and not do what others did and try to learn a high-level jutsu right off the bat. It would be stupid because despite being an Uzumaki and having high chakra reserves, he knew it was better to work one's way up so they mastered all the basics first.

He had just taken a scroll for the Hiding in Mist Technique and was reaching for the Hiding in Water Technique when a yell stopped him.

"Hey!" Haru turned to see a young girl his age glaring at him. "This section is reserved for shinobi _only_. How did a brat like you get in here?!"

Haru blinked in shock before looking the girl over. The first thing he noticed was that she wore a shortened hakama resembling a skirt, which he found slightly strange. She had slightly light blue eyes that had a deep tint of violet and wore round glasses. Her black hair was chin-length and framed both sides of her face, making her look even more child-like if that was possible.

All in all, she was kind of cute and if Haru was still an old man he would have embarrassed her by telling her so. Fortunately, he remembered he was technically the same age as her and saying so out loud would cause a much different reaction.

Then Haru remembered what she'd said and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Brat? We're the same age."

The girl blushed at his words and stuttered for a moment before regain her composure with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks. "T-T-That's not the point! The point is you shouldn't be here so leave before I report you!"

Haru could have told her that he _was,_ in fact, a shinobi but something in him that he thought had died rose up in him and he frowned slightly. "Then what are you doing here then? If you report me then you'll be in trouble for being here anyway."

The girl looked slightly haughty as she crossed her arms and looked down at him from the top of her cute glasses. "My name is Nanao Ise and my mother is the Head Librarian so I have a reason to be here."

Haru blinked at the newly revealed Nanao and pointedly looked over her shoulder as he spotted something poking out of the book-bag on her back. "So they let you borrow scrolls from here despite not being a shinobi then?"

Nanao looked confused for a second before looking over her shoulder at where he was looking only to blush as she saw a scroll from the library poking out of her book bag.

'Discretely' pushing the scroll deeper into her book bag, Nanao turned back to Haru with flushed cheeks. "Well, *cough*, why don't I not tell anyone you were here and you don't tell anyone about my borrowing that scroll?"

Here Haru sent her a deadpan look at her words, surprised she hadn't noticed his headband already. "Well, I'd take that deal but you see the problem is..." Haru taped his forehead protector which Nanao had somehow missed, causing her to pale. "... as a shinobi it's my job to report stuff like that."

Nanao looked like a ghost as she realized that Haru was actually a shinobi and he'd caught her stealing from the Library. With a desperate look on her face, she began to beg, "Please, don't report me! If you do my mom might lose her job or worse! Please, I'll put it back just don't tell."

The sight of the poor girl near tears actually made him feel slightly bad and he was about to assure her that he wasn't going to report her when someone else arrived at the scene.

"Nanao-chan!" Haru and the aforementioned girl turned at the yell and another girl their age ran over towards them with her arms filled with jutsu scrolls. "I've found a few Wind Release ninjutsu in the back. We have to get going before we're caught." The girl seemed to just notice Haru there and blinked at him. "Who's your friend, Nanao-chan? He helping us too?"

Despite his apathetic demeanor, Haru had to fight back a smile as Nanao put her head in her hands in defeat and utter depression at her friend's lack of tact and discretion. For two girls who were supposed to be stealing jutsu scrolls before they're allowed to, she certainly wasn't very stealthy or ninja-like. She was literally carrying the scrolls around in her arms, making no attempt at hiding them as if the guards wouldn't ask what two girls their age would be doing with them.

The new girl had green eyes, and long, auburn hair styled into a sort of herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band. Her bangs were longer than usual but not yet long enough to cover her eyes yet though it was getting there. She was wearing a blue hakama similar to her friend's and shinobi sandals.

"Mei," mumbled Nanao into her hands. "He is _not_ here to help us."

The newly named Mei blinked and turned to him in confusion. "Then did you have the same idea we did and are trying to get higher level ninjutsu to pass the graduating exam early? You know, you look familiar. Do you go to class with me and Aika?"

Haru cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion. "Aika?"

Mei nodded her head happily. "She's my best friend and now partner at the Academy ever since they put us into pairs. Do you have any idea why they did that?"

Haru stiffened as he remembered the reason why the Third Mizukage had split the Academy classes into pairs. Apparently he had been angry at how badly they did in the Second Shinobi War as well as the high amount of missing-nin from this village and so put the new Academy requirements to ensure only the best graduated and to ensure loyalty.

The new Academy requirements had made Haru nearly throw a fit in anger at its cruelty. Splitting the class into pairs so they can grow attached to their partner and then require them to graduate by killing said partner four years later was beyond cruel in his eyes. It was just asking for the new graduates to have a host of mental and emotional problems and not to mention exceedingly wasteful. They basically lost half of the class regardless of anything and if two geniuses were paired together then they'd lose one.

While Harry Potter had been no stranger to cruelty, this just seemed wasteful in his eyes and He had never met someone who was cruel _and_ wasteful before. Usually the crueler the person, the smarter and less wasteful they were which was why they were so hard to catch. Yet the new Mizukage ordered this and purposefully killed half his potential shinobi just to supposedly ensure loyalty. It seemed counterproductive but it wasn't his place to question it. He was just glad he graduated when he did.

"No, he's not in your class, Mei," said Nanao angrily, obviously upset at her friend's cluelessness. It seemed she had forgotten that she didn't know he was a shinobi until he pointed it out either.

Mei blinked at Nanao, confused as to the cause of her anger. "How do you know that? You don't even go to the Academy. Your mom home-schools you."

Nanao sighed and pointed at Haru's forehead protector. "It's because he's already a shinobi."

Haru took advantage of her moment of incomprehension to introduce himself. "Hello, my name is Haru," Mei seemed to blink in recognition and Haru wondered whether they'd met before. "And no, I'm not helping you two. I was actually considering whether to turn you two in or not."

Mei seemed to blink for a second before paling when she registered what he said and caught sight of his forehead protector. Haru tried not to break out laughing when she tried to hide the scrolls behind her back as if it would help her not get in trouble. The fact he could still see the scrolls poking out behind her back only made that much more hilarious.

Haru found his apathetic demeanor tested to its limits as Mei let out a babble of excuses, ranging from anything to it not being what it looked like to saying she needed them to cure some incurable disease for her grandfather (which he seriously doubted existed). He couldn't help but feeling inwardly amused at her panic which was so similar to her friend's earlier. It was funny the way both girls acted like they had done some unforgivable crime that would get them and Nanao's mother thrown in jail for life. It reminded him strongly of Hermione whenever she was caught doing something she shouldn't and for the first time since he had been reborn, he felt his heart lighten and his loneliness abate.

Haru blinked as he realized his thought processes.

Why was he feeling so happy simply by interacting with this girl? Sure, she may remind him of Hermione and this may be the first time he actually interacted with someone his own physical age, but that was no reason to feel lonely, is it? He had his research which enthralled him and his own training.

The reason he hadn't interacted with kids his own age was because he thought they would have nothing in common with him. Despite his physical age, Haru had lived over 140 years, married, had children and watched his children have children of their own and during all this he had continued to increase his knowledge. The fact that he was eight and already experimenting with creating his own jutsu was proof that he thought and acted much different from kids his age.

So why did he feel so happy and giddy interacting with these two little girls his own physical age?

He couldn't be... _lonely_, could he?

Haru shook his head of such thoughts and turned back to the two girls who were looking increasingly panicky, thinking he was going to turn them in. Sighing, Haru raised a hand which instantly got Mei to stop talking and Nanao to look resigned.

"I'm not going to turn you in," said Haru in a deadpan tone. When they started to look hopeful, he continued. "_However_, you need to put those scrolls where they went. From what I'm seeing those are all B-rank or higher, there's no way you have the chakra reserves necessary, never mind whether or not you actually have that affinity. Why were you stealing those scrolls anyway?"

Mei and Nanao pouted and exchanged a look. "We heard that the Academy requirements changed but no one would tell us how they changed. We thought that after you graduated within a year, they made it harder so it wouldn't happen again. So we thought knowing more jutsu would help improve our chances."

Haru twitched when they mentioned the changed Academy requirements, the only sign he knew what they were before calming himself. "...Still, there was no way you could use those jutsu at your age and amount of chakra."

Mei grit her teeth and glared at him. "Yeah, because _you _have it so easy. You graduated within a year. I remember you. You were in the same class as us but you never talked to any of us and passed within a year. Is it because you think you're better than us? Is that it? I bet you never had to work hard for anything, being a _genius _and all."

Haru felt a surge of anger run through him at her words, being strongly reminded of the whispers of the children at the Academy as well his previous life's childhood. He had worked hard for his skills and in his previous life, he had sacrifices a lot to get the happy life he gained. To have this little girl act like he was handed everything on a silver platter angered him deeply.

However, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. It wasn't her fault, after all. She didn't know anything about other than what she'd seen and heard so it was normal she'd think like this. She _was _ only eight, after all.

He also begrudgingly understood her point about his social tendencies. While at the Academy, he made a point not to interact with any of his peers. He knew they wouldn't click due to his past experiences and unnatural maturity compared to them. Plus, he was too enthralled with his studies to really try and make a friendship with a child work. His experiences with his own children would probably make him seem like another adult or wet blanket as he tried to stop them from doing 'fun' stuff.

Now that he thought about it, he actually recognized Mei from the Academy the previous year. He had talked to her once or twice, enough to know that she was an orphan like him (though apparently she had an uncle who took her in) which had made him wonder if she was an Uzumaki like him or at least related to them in some way due to her red hair. He hadn't outright asked her but he had briefly wondered about it before he simply tossed it out of his mind as unimportant.

Looking at her puffed up cheeks and face full of what she probably thought was righteous indignation, Haru couldn't help but say what he did next.

"Want me to train you?" asked Haru curiously.

The two girls blinked in shock and looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. "Really?" asked Nanao in a hopeful tone. "You will? You're not too busy with missions and your own training?"

Haru had no idea why he was doing this. Training these two girls would cut into his own research time, which would already be shortened by his new team next week. Yet as he stared at their hopeful eyes, he was strongly reminded of two little girls he'd failed in his previous life.

Near the end of his life, signs of a new Dark Lord starting appearing. Harry had recognized the signs and tried to warn the Minister only to be ignored. He had been passed off as senile and a relic of a forgotten age.

Not wanting to see the peace he'd created be destroyed during his life, Harry had used his contacts, on both sides of the fence, to maneuver the Dark Lord into attacking the Minister before he was ready. In terms of what he wanted to gain from the attack, it was a resounding success. The Minsiter's death had shown the world the danger of this new Dark Lord and when Harry was voted interim Minister of Magic, he managed to stamp them out quickly and efficiently. Afterwards, he made sure to leave a stable and effective government behind which would make it so no new Dark Lords would ever rise again.

However, on a more personal front, that day had been one of his most profound failures.

Unknown to Harry, Hermione's granddaughter had bumped into the Minister shortly before the attack and since the two were Hogwarts friends, they had stayed to buy some ice cream together. Hermione's granddaughter had with her two twin daughters, Hermione and Lily (named after her grandmother and Harry's mother respectively) at the time as well, having brought them to the Alley to buy them their Hogwarts stuff. It would have been their first year at Hogwarts and both children and mother had been ecstatic.

Then, the attack happened.

By the end of it, both eleven year olds Lily and Hermione had died along with their mother who had tried to protect them from their aggressors to no avail. Unlike her grandmother, Hermione's granddaughter had been raised in a time of peace and was a Healer to boot. Therefore, she had no combat experience and was easy pickings for the dark wizards.

The deaths of her granddaughter and great-grandchildren had broken Hermione's heart and she died not a week later, joining her husband Ronald in the next great adventure.

The repercussions of that day had haunted Harry for the rest of his life. It was partially because of that that he felt such anger at his second life. Of all the people who deserved a second chance, he was surely not one of them. What about those two little girls, who were taken from life before having a chance to truly live?

Looking at Mei and Nanao, two girls who were basically entering a war zone out of choice, Haru saw little Lily and Hermione once more. He would not allow more children to die of he could help it so he hid his inner thoughts and shrugged at them. "Not really. I haven't gotten a team yet so the only missions I can do are solo D-ranks which are basically chores. As for my own training... I can take time from it to help you. But only if you take it seriously. If I think you're not putting in your full effort then I'll stop training you both, understand?"

Haru felt the need to warn them this at least. Despite his physical age, Haru was no child and he hated to waste his time. When he was Auror Captain, he hated new recruits who joined just for the prestige and thought they could just cruise by half-assed. Those were the first to die on the field and he had gotten tired of burying bodies. Training to be a shinobi was no different so if they weren't going to take it seriously, then he wasn't going to waste his time.

Mei and Nanao quickly nodded their heads in understanding. "Of course! Don't worry, Haru-sensei, we'll give you 110%!" said Mei happily.

Haru looked amused at Mei's enthusiasm and nodded seriously. "Okay then. If you want, we can start now. Put those scrolls back and wait while I grab a few for me and we'll head out."

The two girls were quick to comply and return to the scrolls to their proper place. Haru tried not to laugh once more when he saw Mei try to convince her friend to take a larger portion of the many scrolls she'd taken, only to fail and drag her feet as she went to return them herself.

His melancholy mood forgotten, Haru got back to grabbing a few jutsu scrolls for himself for his own training later.

* * *

**A little while later, Training grounds number eighty five**

Haru was now standing in the middle of a small training ground across from Mei and Nanao. The training grounds was one of the ones that was rarely used due to how foggy it usually was even for Mist-nin and how close it was to the shoreline. It had a few trees here and there though not as much as, say, the Land of Fire did. Haru truly wondered why the place with the most amount of trees was called the 'Land of Fire' and wondered how often forest fires happened there for a moment before shaking it off as unimportant.

Distantly, Haru thought how amusing it would be for a passerby to see them now, two eight year old girls taking training from a boy their own age. They'd probably be amused and call them the 'Chibi' Squad.

That is, if their thoughts didn't take a more perverted direction and think he was training the two girls to be the first of his harem or something.

Haru had quickly discovered that it seemed that the shinobi life made men much more open about their perverseness than he was used to. Genins around twelve and thirteen were already having sex and as long as they were both shinobi, an above twenty year old having sex with a twelve year old wasn't thought of as weird or wrong. It clashed heavily with his own, admittedly prudish, values on sex and love but he mentally understood it. In a lifestyle where you were lucky to reach forty, you had to live life to its fullest while you could. So dying a virgin was probably not something any shinobi or kunoichi wanted, which was why they were so quick to lose it as soon as they could.

Haru briefly wondered how he would have felt if he had actually died all those countless times he put himself in danger before losing his virginity. However, he was brought out of his thoughts by an angry yell.

"Hey!" Haru blinked to see Mei looking at him angrily with a slight blush on her face which was mirrored by Nanao. "Are you going to train us or are you going to just stand there staring at us like some creepy stalker?!"

Haru blinked at that before realizing that he had, in fact, been staring into space in their direction. Deciding to have some fun, while inwardly wondering where it came from, Haru cocked an eyebrow at her. "Stalk you? Please. Come back in ten years when there are more differences between you and boys than the fact that you sit down to pee and then maybe we'll talk."

Mei flushed in anger, and perhaps a bit of embarrassment, but was cut off from ranting at him when Haru spoke.

"Now," said Haru seriously, inwardly grinning at Mei's look of impotent anger. Ah, he had forgotten how good it felt to prank someone. There was nothing like it. "We'll start from the beginning. What do you know about chakra?"

Mei finally calmed down before both girls looked at him uncertainly. Eventually, Mei spoke. "It's that stuff inside us that lets us do cool jutsu, right?"

Haru sent her a deadpan look. She couldn't possibly be _that _stupid, could she? "Yeeeesss... anything _else_?"

Nanao raised her hand hesitantly. "It's made up of two parts, physical and mental, right?"

Haru sent Nanao a slight smile of approval, making her blush in embarrassment and pride, before nodding. "Yes, that's exactly it. To be more specific, chakra is the energy present in all living things and without chakra it is theorized that there would be no life." Not true as Haru knew personally but whatever. "Chakra is made up of two parts. The first is the physical, or Yang, part of chakra. This comes from the normal day to day working of the body and is what breathes life into all creation. Yang chakra is what makes up the majority of physical techniques such as Taijutsu and is one-half of what is needed for Ninjutsu. The second part of chakra is the mental, or Yin, side and it's what brings imagination into reality. After all, humans don't naturally breath fire so the Yin side of chakra brings that image into reality while Yang chakra gives it 'life'. Yin chakra comes from knowledge and experience but more specifically, imagination. The more one learns, the more specific and detailed one's imagination can becomes instead of the opposite which for some reason, everyone thinks is true. By molding the two energies in different ratios, you can get drastically different effects for the same jutsu."

"Chakra travels through the chakra circulatory system and, if trained, one can release it through any of the 361 chakra points called tenketsu. The overall physical and spiritual energy an individual has, is called the "_total stamina_" of the person. However, a person can't use all their chakra, since doing that will kill you, so the amount they can create and retain at a given time is called their "_chakra power-level_", which is basically the total amount of chakra they can use before endangering their lives. Do you understand all that?"

Sometime during his lecture, Haru had closed his eyes and taken a lecturing pose to better remember and impart his knowledge. So when he finished and opened his eyes, he was met with a comical sight.

Nanao was looking at him in shock and confusion, obviously having understood less than half of what he said though she was desperately trying to act as if she understood it all. Mei, however, was the funniest and was holding her head in her hands with her eyes having been replaced by swirly marks in her confusion.

Sweat-dropping at the sight, Haru sighed. "Basically, chakra is made up of physical energy that you get from exercising and mental energy that you get from getting smarter. _Which apparently Mei will need to work on desperately._" The last part was said in a slight mutter that was nonetheless heard by Nanao who held back a giggle.

Mei blinked at his simple explanation and glared at him with puffed up cheeks. "Then why didn't you just say that in the first place?!" Mei huffed and looked away before what he said at the end seemed to sink in. "Hey, what did you mean about me needing to work on my mental energy?! Are you calling me dumb?!"

Pointedly ignoring the girl who had tried to leap at him in an attempt to strangle him only to be stopped by her friend holding her back, Haru continued his explanation. "Now that you understand that, we can move on to using it as shinobi. Tell me, what are the two ways chakra could be manipulated?"

Mei smiled and raised her hand eagerly. "Oh, I know this! Shape transformation and nature transformation!"

Haru looked surprised at her actually knowing that but guessed he had a bad opinion of her intelligence due to recent interactions. He actually remembered that, back at the Academy, when it came to some aspects of chakra theory, she had been pretty smart.

"Exactly," said Haru with a smile. "Shape transformation involves, as the name indicates, changing the shape and form of your chakra. A master or at least expert in shape transformation can change a Fire Dragon jutsu to any form he wants, from birds to even fish if he wanted. Meanwhile, nature transformation involves changing the very nature of your chakra into something else such as fire, water, wind, earth or lightning. Truly powerful shinobi are those that can use both shape and nature transformation in many different ways instead of just relying on spamming powerful jutsu."

Both girls looked interested at that and Mei smiled widely. "So are you going to teach us that today?"

"No." Both girls faceplanted at his blunt tone but Haru continued unconcerned. "At least not right away. After all, I don't know how to do either at the moment so I can't exactly teach you. _However_, both transformations are the highest forms of chakra control so you need to start at the bottom and work your way up."

Haru walked over to a tree and walked up its trunk, causing both girls' eyes to widen, before he grabbed a handful of leaves and jumping back down. Knowing what they were thinking, Haru smiled impishly. "Sorry but you won't be walking up any trees soon. But you _can_ work on your Leaf Sticking Exercise."

Both girls look depressed at that and Mei scowled. "The Leaf Sticking Exercise?! We mastered that _ages_ ago!"

Haru gave her a knowing smile. "Did you? Then I guess that means you can do this."

The girls watched as Haru visibly channeled chakra into the leaf before the leaf suddenly started to fold itself before their widened eyes. Eventually, the leaf stopped folding itself, showing it had been folded into a paper crane... but made out of leaf obviously.

Nanao looked excited at that and smiled widely. "How did you do that?! I've never seen someone do that before, not even my mom and she's a former medic-nin so her chakra control is awesome!"

Haru smiled slightly at the girl and channeled chakra into the leaf once more to make it open up once more without a trace of wrinkles. "I'm sure she could do it if she tried. This is a very basic form of shape transformation chakra control which only requires you to infuse the leaf with your chakra before then manipulating the paper using your chakra. It's harder than it sounds but once you do it, you'll be able to do more than just make paper cranes."

To demonstrate, Haru channeled chakra into the leaf, making it as hard and sharp as possible before throwing it like a kunai toward a tree. Both girls watched with wide eyes as the formerly flimsy leaf sunk into the bark a bit before losing its hardness and sharpness and floating back to the ground.

"It can work as an emergency projectile in tight spots," explained Haru lightly. "However, I wouldn't recommend using it as your main projectile. The amount of chakra necessary would just be wasteful unless one had perfect chakra control. I imagine paper or something similar would work better but it would take years of practice before it could be applied on the field."

Haru turned to find the girls staring at him with starstruck eyes which made him slightly uncomfortable. Even after living 147 years, Harry Potter had never felt comfortable with praise. Part of it was due to his upbringing and another part of it was due to being naturally humble. However, his wife had taught him to at least accept the praise neutrally since sometimes waving off one's accomplishments could inspire jealousy in those incapable of doing the same.

Haru's heart clenched as he thought about his late wife. He had purposely tried not to think about her since his 'rebirth' since it filled with a feeling of immeasurable sadness and anger at his current situation. Part of his apathy to his life was due to anger at being denied his rest and being reunited with his wife. He may have accepted her death as a natural part of life but it had still truck him hard. It had felt as if half of his soul had gone with her and the only thing that stopped him from completely breaking down had been the thought that he'd see her again someday. Now even that was taken from him and it angered him deeply.

Another part was fear. What if everyone was reincarnated once they died? His wife had died a full thirty seven years before him from natural causes. Despite her death being natural and her having passed on in his sleep, the pain of her death haunted him for the rest of his life. Yet if everyone was reincarnated upon death, did that mean his wife had too?

If she _was_ reincarnated, was she reincarnated here or in another world? Had she already died her second death or was she still alive somewhere in the multiverse? Had she moved on and found someone else to love or did she miss him as much as he did her?

He knew he was being pessimistic. She had truly loved him as much as he had loved her and he knew that if she had been reincarnated, she had mourned him as much as he did her. However, he couldn't help but want to break down in tears at the thought of never being reunited with her again. He always believed in Dumbledore's words of death being the 'next great adventure' but he hadn't thought it was literal. He had thought it was a metaphor and he would be reunited with his family and friends again. Yet if they _were _reincarnated in this world and knowing his luck, if he reunited with them it would be as enemies from different villages.

Haru was brought out of his thoughts when Mei waved her hand in front of his face. "Yoo-hoo! Are you alive in there?"

Haru grabbed Mei's hand and gave her a deadpan look. "Yes, I'm alive. I was just thinking."

Mei huffed. "You tend to do that a lot, you know. It's kinda weird. I thought only old people got lost in their thoughts."

Haru had to hold back a slightly demented laugh at her words. She didn't know how right she was. "Maybe I'm older than I look," said Haru cryptically.

Mei just rolled her eyes and huffed once more. "Yeah, right, and I'm going to Mizukage someday. So are you going to teach us that trick or not?!"

Haru couldn't help but smile ever so slightly and began to teach them how to complete his self-created basic exercise for shape transformation. It promised to be a long and funny day if Mei's frustrated and lost look at his explanation was any indication.

* * *

**One week later, Training grounds number twelve**

Haru was currently sitting in the middle of the assigned training ground where he was going to meet his genin team while remembering what happened over the past week.

For the past week, Haru had been training in some basic E-rank and D-rank skills in his free time whenever he could. In the entire week, he hadn't time to even look over his projects due to how busy he was.

This was because most of his time past 3 o'clock, when the Academy let out, was spent training Nanao and Mei in basic shinobi skills. It was mostly polishing basic skills such as weapons handling, taijutsu and basic chakra control but every now and then, Haru would explain some concepts more in-depth using what he'd discovered in his own research.

Despite the apathy that filled this life since his 'rebirth', Haru found himself enjoying his time with the two girls. Mei never failed to make him smile at her sometimes over-dramatic displays of emotion and found himself teasing her on more than one occasion just to get a reaction. It never failed to amuse him and made his days that much less bleak.

As for Nanao, her willingness to learn was a breath of fresh air. While not as learned as himself, Nanao had a natural talent in learning that he'd only ever seen in his old friend, Hermione, before. Haru's various complicated explanations and theories had affected her to the point that she now regularly carried around a book of chakra theory which she would read whenever she had the chance. The funny part was that Mei never failed to complain how she was surrounded by nerds.

Haru was brought out of his thoughts when two people entered the training grounds. Looking up at them, Haru studied what he guessed were to be his soon to be teammates.

The first was a boy even younger than him, surprisingly. He looked to be seven years old, meaning he probably passed the Academy in one year much like he had. He was fairly short, wearing a white hakama of some sort where Haru could see the handle of what looked to be a wazikashi sticking out. He was unusually thin and tall (matching Haru's own average height for his age) with very sharp features, giving him an almost skeletal appearance, which made his unusual silver hair stand out even more. His face was also set in a wide mocking smile which made Haru cock an eyebrow at before dismissing it. Due to how his eyes were narrowed into slits, Haru couldn't see their color.

The second was a girl about two years older than him, and where the other boy was tall, she was short and petite. She had light skin and violet-colored eyes that contrasted well with her black hair which had several strands of hair hanging between her eyes. She was wearing a black combat hakama with a white undergarment underneath, which gave her a sort of professional air which Haru respected.

Much like her two teammates, she looked to be an early graduate (though not as young a graduate as them), being only ten. However, Haru didn't remember haven't ever seen her at the Academy and while it took a while, his Occlumency let him remember everyone he'd ever seen before as long as consciously looked for the memory. Maybe home-schooled like Nanao?

Both children caught sight of him and walked over, the boy with his seemingly customary mocking smile and the girl with a calm look on her face that was betrayed by the nervous look in her eyes.

The girl was the first to reach Haru, who had stood up when they approached, and inclined her head slightly in greeting. "Good morning, my name is Rukia Kuchiki and you must be my second teammate. I hope we can become good friends."

Ah, that explained some things. The Kuchiki were a sort of noble clan in Kiri, having been part of its founding much like the Inuzuka or Nara were part of Konoha's. However, unlike those clans the Kuchiki were primarily a civilian clan until this generation when the current Clan Head joined the Academy. He rose to the rank of Jounin and even Anbu captain and apparently made quite a name for himself before his retirement from ninja duties to become Clan Head with his parents' death.

The current Clan Head had married about three years ago and there had been a bit of an uproar when he not only married a commoner but also made his wife's sister an official member of the clan. He even went so far as to name her heir in case of his death and his wife being incapacitated. Rukia must be aforementioned wife's sister and she was obviously home-schooled. Becoming a kunoichi was a sound move both politically and personally. Shinobi were highly respected even amongst civilian clans and if she made a name for herself, then the clan would have to swallow their words of her being unworthy.

Of course, she had a bit of shadow to work out of under. Her brother-in-law's reputation as a shinobi cast a long shadow and she'd be working against it for most of her life. Still, she didn't seem the kind to give up and if she succeeded, she'd have something to be personally proud of.

Haru smiled at Rukia kindly, causing her to relax. "Hello, I'm Haru and yes, I'd be your second teammate. I'm sure we'll become good friends."

Rukia smiled brightly at him and Haru returned it before turning to the boy. The boy seemed to sense his gaze (since with how his eyes were narrowed to slits, Haru doubted he could see him) because his smile widened slightly.

"Pleasure to meet ya," said the boy mockingly. "I'm Gin Ichimaru and while I'm not from some fancy clan like Ms. Kuchiki here," Rukia flushed in anger at his mocking tone, "I think I can take care of myself. Though..." Here, Gin opened one lone eye, revealing its startling sky blue color as he coolly assessed Haru, "I'm not feeling too special for graduating in a year anymore. After all, you did the same so it's almost like I'm just copying what you did."

Haru hid his surprise at the seemingly mature look in the seven year old's eye behind a practiced face of Occlumency. It seemed like Haru wasn't the only one much more mature for his age. The look in Gin's eyes was one of knowing that there was more to him than what appeared at first glance.

Interesting. Rukia was also more mature than she seemed, probably a mix of being trained to be a noble for the past three years and her previous life on the streets. While he could sense a bit of childishness in her still, he was more mature than some of the newly graduated Genin from the academy.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"I'm glad to see you three are getting along."

All three children jumped in shock at the sound of the voice not far from them and turned to see who was obviously their Jonin-sense standing there.

The first thing Haru noticed was the motherly aura she exuded. She gave off a kind and gentle look that Haru had seen many times as Harry Potter on the faces of his own wife and his female friends who had children.

The second thing he took in was her overall appearance. She had the appearance of a slender and very youthful woman, at most being in her late 20s, with blue eyes and black hair. Her hair was long and worn as a large braid down the front of her body. She was wearing a white shitagi, a black kosode, a black hakama, a white hakama-himo, white tabi, and waraji. On top of all that she was also wearing a white haori which had a black rhombus with the kanji for "Heal" in the center in white.

All in all, Haru thought she looked like the stereotypical mother figure and even had a kind and gentle smile on her face to complete the picture.

Haru wondered how she could be a Jonin in a place as bloody as Kiri was but knew appearances could be deceptive. After all, Tom Riddle had given off an appearance of a handsome and hard-working boy during his Hogwarts years which hid his cruel and manipulative nature.

The woman looked at each of them in turn and smiled slightly wider. "Hello. My name is Retsu Unohana and I'll be your Jonin-sensei from now on. I'm glad you've all arrived on time. I do not like tardiness without a _very_ good excuse since it indicates sloppiness and disrespect, neither of which I tolerate. Understand?"

Haru had seen many frightening and disturbing things in his life as Harry Potter. Dementors were at the top of the list, obviously, closely followed by some of the results of Death Eater raids on muggle women. There had also been on particular case involving a centuries old vampire and twelve little girls that would haunt him beyond even death.

Yet what Unohana-sensei managed to beat them all hands-down.

For a moment, a dark and frightening aura seemed to envelope Unohana-sensei and form an unspeakable evil that his mind simply refused to process. It was like the sum total of every horror in the universe taken form and Haru could swear that he felt the universe itself cry out in horror. He hadn't even noticed how he'd clung to Rukia in fear, the hug being reciprocated by the older girl with Gin having frozen in shock, his normally narrowed eyes wide open in terror.

The moment passed quickly and the sun came out and birds started chirping as if nothing happened.

"Ara," said Unohana gently. "Are you three okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

The three children nodded mechanically, still too frozen in terror to respond in words. Unohana smiled at them and nodded. "I'm glad. Just be sure that none of you are ever late, understand?"

The three children nodded vigorously, silently swearing to kill their own parents (if they had them) or child rather than be late and risk seeing..._that_ ever again.

"Now," said Unohana as the three slowly regained normal human mental capabilities. "Why don't we get to know each other first? I'll begin. My name is Retsu Unohana and I'm a Jonin-level medic-nin that specializes in battlefield healing. My likes are strong-flavored food of all kinds and I hate the bland kind of foods. I also like climbing mountains to gather rare medicinal herbs as well as flower-arranging. Oh! I'm the president of the Ikebana club Kiri chapter. I do hope that you at least visit from time to time, Rukia-chan."

Said girl meekly nodded her agreement, fearing refusal would end with seeing that _thing_ again.

"What else?" asked Unohana out loud. "Oh! My dream for the future is to make all three of you proud Jonin of Kiri and support you on whatever career path you choose. Now, it's your turn."

Seeing neither Rukia nor Gin had completely recovered from the earlier horror, Haru decided to step forward. "Hello, my name is Haru. My likes are my research into Yin and Yang release and certain types of dishes which aren't very common around here. My dislikes are nosy people, excessive cruelty and killing though I'm willing to admit there are exceptions. My dream for the future is..." Haru hesitated, realizing he didn't actually have one. It bothered him for some reason but he just shrugged it off. "...well, I haven't really thought about it but I guess its to have a family someday."

Unohana-sensei had looked at him in surprise when he mentioned Yin and Yang release and gave him a penetrating look before smiling slightly. She wasn't the only one since both Rukia and Gin had looked at him in shock before the former muttered something about geniuses and the latter just smiled his mocking smile.

Seeing that he was done, Unohana clapped her hands gently. "Very good, Haru and I will be happy to support your dream and ambitions in the future. Now, ladies first."

Blushing slightly, Rukia stepped forward, trying not to fidget in nervousness. "Hello, my name is Rukia Kuchiki. My likes are climbing high places and Chappy the Bunny. My favorite foods are cucumber, eggs, and rice dumplings. My dislikes are people who insult my drawings and stupid people. My dream for the future is to make my onee-chan and onii-san proud by becoming a strong Kiri kunoichi."

Everyone nodded at her explanation, though Haru was curious about something. "Chappy the Bunny? What's that?"

Faster than Haru could track, Rukia was in front of him with sparkling eyes showing him a comic book with a strange smiling rabbit on the front. "Chappy the Bunny is the rabbit hero of the world! His comics depict his amazing adventures across the world as he brings peace and happy times everywhere he goes. He's gone everywhere from the hidden Village of Lost Hopes to the Desert of Despair to even the moon!"

At each location name, Rukia changed pages showing the strange rabbit visiting the places in various clothing. In the final picture, it showed the rabbit standing on the moon in a strange outfit that Haru thought looked similar to an Anbu uniform. Rukia's sudden change of demeanor from her usual cool and polite one shocked him so much that he could only say one thing.

"How can Chappy breathe in space?" asked Haru disbelievingly.

Wham!

"Son of a-!" yelled Haru as he covered his face after it had been brutally hit by the Chappy comic book. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Don't insult Chappy the Bunny!" yelled Rukia angrily. "Chappy the Bunny is awesome!"

"I didn't insult him," shouted Haru back. "I just asked how he could breathe in vacuum!"

"Obviously it's because he's a bunny and he ate a lot of plants to automatically turn the carbon dioxide in his stomach into air to travel there and back, idiot!" yelled Rukia.

Haru looked at Rukia in disbelief. It was incredibly surprising how she could say something so smart and so stupid at the same time. "That's not how it works! If it did then everyone would eat plants to breathe underwater!"

"But Chappy is a rabbit so its obvious his physiology is different!" yelled back Rukia. "So it just means he can do that and we can't! Kami, you can be so _stupid_! Some genius!"

Haru was about to retort angrily when a dark cloud passed over them, freezing both Rukia and Haru still.

"Now, now," said Unohana gently which greatly contrasted the slowly darkening aura around her. The _thing_ hadn't appeared yet but if it continued it would only be a matter of time. "There's no need for teammates to fight. Now apologize to each other and don't let me catch you fighting again."

Both Haru and Rukia were quick to sputter apologies, whether they were to each other or to Unohana neither one knew, which thankfully caused the dark aura to vanish.

"That's better," said Unohana gently. She turned to the final member of the team with a small smile. "Now it's your turn."

Gin's smile seemed slightly strained but he managed to speak without a stutter. "Hello, my name is Gin Ichimaru. I like dried persimmons, people-watching and pranks. I dislike dried sweet potatoes and anyone who hurts my friends. My dream for the future.." here Gin paused and his smile turned a bit more genuine. "... I guess is to make sure my friend Rangiku never cries again."

Everyone smiled slightly at his last statement, knowing that if nothing else, he was a good friend. Unohana seemed especially pleased and smiled proudly at them.

"I'm glad to have such good students and you have all passed my test." Seeing their surprised look, Unohana's smile turned understanding. "Other than the Academy graduation test, the Jonin-sensei set a test of their own to see whether their assigned students are worthy of becoming official genin. Mine was to see your character through your introductions. I'm happy to say that none of you are inherently cruel or selfish in any way, which would have caused me to either automatically fail you or set a much harder test to see if you could overcome your nature."

"Now, as for your training. As a medic-nin, I will primarily teach you chakra control and medical ninjutsu as well as the basics all genin are expected to know. I have some skill in kenjutsu and if you show interest I will teach you that as well. Unfortunately, I am not very skilled in ninjutsu beyond a few high-level wind release ninjutsu that are beyond your capability right now. However, if you show the affinity and skill I might teach you them in the future. For now, I may call in a few favors from other Jonin without a team to teach you ninjutsu once we figure out your affinity."

Unohana's smile turned gentle and kind, seemingly bathing them in its warmth. "I am proud to say that you are now officially Team Eight. From now on, us four are a family and we will be together through all of our successes and failures in the future. Depend on and trust each other for in the future there may be a time where the only ones you can trust are each other."

Haru looked at his two teammates and saw them smiling, even Gin's smile was genuine, which caused Haru to smile as well. It was one of the few genuine smiles he'd made since his rebirth and he felt his heart lighten slightly.

Perhaps having a team wouldn't be so bad.

And the shield around Haru's heart showed its first crack.

* * *

**AN: And there's chapter 2!**

**Hope you like the chapter! I hope I accurately portrayed what I wanted to with Haru in this chapter. He's still mostly apathetic but its slowly chipping away with meeting Mei and Nanao as well as meeting his new team. The reason for his apathy was his anger at being denied his rest and reunited with his family which was only compounded by his loneliness due to feeling an outcast. He may be physically eight years old but he's mentally much older which makes it hard to talk to kids his age. The way he explained chakra to Mei and Nanao was a funny example.**

**As for how I portrayed Mei, I can sorta see her like this as a kid. She seems sorta over-dramatic in the manga and anime at times so I can see that being exaggerated as a child. She mellows out and becomes the leader she's meant to in the future but for now, she's just an eight year old orphan girl.**

**As for whole Third Mizukage thing. *Sigh* Okay, here's my problem. The timeline of Naruto is completely insane. For example, Zabuza is Kakashi's age when he died according to the wiki (which is 26, by the way). His page clearly states he graduated early at nine after massacring the entire graduating class. That means it was 17 years pre-canon. The Kyuubi attack was 12 years before so Zabuza was 14 when it happened. The Third Shinobi War was the year RIGHT BEFORE the Kyuubi attack and I guess it lasted maybe two years so he was 12 when it started. **

**Now... it's hinted that the Fourth Mizukage did the whole killing someone to graduate thing under Obito's influence. HOWEVER, the whole thing had to have been started a few years before Zabuza did his thing for it to be so infamous. Yet what really makes the timeline completely insane is that unless Obito can travel in time, HOW THE HELL DID HE INFLUENCE THE FOURTH MIZUKAGE BEFORE HE EVEN MET MADARA!?**

**I mean, the Third Shinobi War was the year before the Kyuubi attack. Which means Obito influenced the Fourth during the final months of the war or right after the Kyuubi attack. Yet how could that affect Zabuza when he had already graduated by then?! Zabuza was 14 when the Kyuubi attacked! Furthermore, the test had to have been in place for a couple of years, at minimum five, for it to be so well-known so that makes Zabuza even OLDER than he should.**

**So for the sake of my sanity, I created my own timeline and changed things. For the sake of my story, the whole 'Bloody Mist' test was implemented by the Third Mizukage (which is a Bleach character by the way) while the Bloodline thing was by Yagura. The third Mizukage ruled from the years between the end of the Second Shinobi War and the start of the Third where he died and was replaced by Yagura.**

**It makes it MUCH easier on my head since I've accepted the fact that Kishimoto has no idea how to write a reasonable timeline. Heck, even by making the wars as short as possible (one or two years at max) and making the time between wars as long as possible, by all accounts Minato HAD to have fought in the Second Shinobi War as a genin. If he really graduated at 10, and he was 13 or thereabouts when the Second Shinobi War started, then he had to have fought in it in some capacity, even if it was simple missions. The same with Kushina and her generation and it would actually make sense since Kushina would be 13 at the time and it would explain why Kumo would kidnap her at that time. Yet Kishimoto never mentions it.**

**Actually, looking back Konoha was only 47 years old when the Nine-Tails attacked instead of the hundred everyone seems to think it lasted. After all, Sarutobi knew both Hashirama and Tobirama when he was close to his twenties and he's not THAT old. He's only 68 in part one so minus 12 would make him 56 at the time of the Kyuubi attack. He was born before Konoha was founded (since the First Shinobi War was soon after the villages were founded and he was near his twenties at the time) so... yeah, Konoha is less than a 60 years old by the time canon starts.**

**By the way, when I put the date as something like '38 AK', AK stands for 'After Konoha' which basically means whatever years after Konoha's founding. Kishimoto uses the Kyuubi attack as Year 0 but really, I can't see the other villages using an event that affected only one village as their own calendar, especially years before it even happens. However, the founding of Konoha was a much more significant event since it ended the Warring Clans Era and started the Shinobi Villages one. So I can see it being used as Year 0 by the other villages.**

**As always, Read and Review!**


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